After We Move On
by SerenityRainfall
Summary: Three years after Madoka erased herself from existence, Homura is living an average life in Tokyo. But when a person from her past shows up at her door, Homura's semi-peaceful life comes to a halt. There's something out there hunting down magical girls, and it's up to Homura and a few others to end it before it ends them. Rated T for dark themes and implied sexual content.
1. Reunion

Heyyyyy guys! This is the other fic I've been working on, the Madoka Magica one I've been planning for a while now. Yes, it's rate M, but mainly for dark themes and the murder that occurs. There is a little (very little!) bit of sexual content, but nothing explicit. So please, sit back and enjoy the first chapter of After We Move On

Disclaimer: I don't own Madoka Magica, because if I did, Kyoko and Homura would become bro's and kick major ass together because they're my favorites.

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After We Move On

Chapter One: Reunion

She opened her eyes and saw only darkness. Shapes were vaguely recognizable, but in her still dream-hazed state of mind, she couldn't figure them out. It took several moments of deep breathing and calming thoughts to get her mind together. She heard soft breathing beside her, and the pieces clicked into place.

Last night, she'd gone to one of the numerous clubs whose sole purpose was for people who needed another person to warm their bed for a night. She'd been frequenting these clubs for two years now, but one in particular had become her favorite. While it wasn't as new and as shiny as all the others, the name had lured her in, and the men she met made her stay. _The Last Stop_ was not a very popular club by today's standards, but she always managed to find someone new to take home.

The man in bed with her on this morning was a twenty-something who she'd met at _The Last Stop, _a man who talked her ear off half the night about quantum physics and black holes until she cut him by kissing him; she then suggested that they head back to his place, a proposition to which he eagerly agreed. One thing led to another, and now she was here, in the bed of a total stranger, waiting for a good time to leave.

She lazily studied his features, remembering the softness of his black hair against her skin, and how his gaze never left hers during their…activities. His eyes in particular were what drew her to him: intense grey-blue eyes, restless like a storm upon the sea. A tattoo was inscribed in his chest, and she had to squint slightly to make it out: a small dragon with scales but no wings, above the kanji for eternity. After watching his chest rise and fall with steady breaths for several minutes, she felt the need to go bubble up once more.

Even though the sun had yet to come up, she began to feel anxious and decided that she would leave now and avoid the awkwardness that was sure to follow once her partner woke up.

She started to remove herself from the blankets when a swift arm reached up, encased her small body, and dragged her back down towards the bed. He mumbled something inaudible, most likely sleep talk, and relaxed his arm as he fell back to sleep. She quickly glanced at the clock, which alerted her to the fact that it was merely 3:15 AM. She could sleep for another two hours before she actually had to leave.

Relaxing her body, she was somewhat surprised when her partner began nuzzling her neck in his sleep; his hands surrounded her body, but the touches were light and sweet. She felt the haze of sleep overtaking her once more, and fell asleep in the arms of yet another handsome stranger.

-xxx-

_A cacophony of sound roared through her eardrums as she swerved to the left to avoid another building as it was hurled toward her. She could hear it crash, could feel the air shift her hair as it barely passed her, leaving her remarkably unscathed. One breath was taken before she was moving again, always trying to get a new angle on her enemy. The enemy laughed, and the sound shook the girl's very bones. _'Not again,' _she thought, as she drew nearer towards her target, _'I will not fail again'_. _

_ A stream of energy caught her off guard and slammed into her. The breath left her lungs as she fell several hundred feet towards the ground below. She landed in the water, a small mercy compared to landing on the concrete only feet away, but her lungs needed precious air and her strength was fading. _

_ She desperately swam upwards, but the surface of the water was always just beyond her reach, no matter how hard she tried. As she finally reached the surface, a much needed breath was taken, but only one. A dark shadow loomed over her, and she only had moments to look above before yet another building piece was cast down upon her. _

_ Her shield was cast up in time, but the building had her trapped and was taking her down. The shield provided a relief from instant death, but it did not provide any air to breathe. Feeling her strength fade as her lung began to fail. She could hear a voice quietly speaking, so softly it felt as though the words were caressing her very mind. _

'Sleep now, my friend. You don't have to fight anymore.' _She wanted to fight the voice, to go against its wishes and continue the battle, but her body was shutting down and there was nothing more she could do. The shield, devoid now of any power, deactivated, and the girl was left to her fate._

_ As the building began to crush her body, the voice spoke once more, more distant now, but still hearable: _'Keep it up, Homura-chan'.

-xxx-

Homura awoke to her bedmate speaking to her. As her mind was full of post-sleep haze once more, his words were inaudible to her in the first moments after she awoke. She blinked several times before she was able to bring everything into focus. "Are you alright?" was what the man was asking, and she nodded her head in reply.

"I woke up because you were struggling against me. I thought you wanted me to let go, so I did, but obviously that wasn't what you really wanted seeing as how you grabbed on to my arm with surprising strength and didn't let go. I didn't even realize you were still sleeping until I saw that your eyes were clenched shut."

Homura sighed, and began telling him the same story she told all her paramours when they caught her like this. "It was a nightmare, nothing more. I've always had them; it's nothing to worry about."

He nodded but still didn't look convinced. She glanced at the clock: 6:30 AM. Her eyes widened as she threw off the covers, ignored the cold, and rapidly began gathering her clothes. School started in an hour and it would take her almost an hour to get there from _The Stop_, not to mention that she had to rush home and get her uniform_. _Hopefully her bedmate lived closer to her home than the last one. It was getting rather hard to explain her lateness.

As she frantically dressed, her partner looked on with a smirk. He sat up, and the covers fell to just above his pelvis, revealing the prominent lines that Homura knew led to a piece of anatomy that she'd become…acquainted with the previous night.

"You're getting ready awful fast considering it's a Saturday morning," he said with mirth, and Homura instantly froze. How could she not realize it? She honestly wanted to slap herself in the face. In the wake of her sleepy haze, she'd completely forgotten the new rule she'd implemented on herself: to avoid further lateness at school, she would only go out on the weekends. Homura sighed and dropped her clothes

"Now that you've realized that you have nowhere to be, why don't you come back to bed? I enjoyed myself thoroughly last night, and a repeat would be a wonderful thing to experience first thing in the morning."

"And how do you know I don't have somewhere to be?" She asked, annoyed at his evident cockiness.

"I'm not an idiot; while I hope you are past the age of consent, only a person still in school would be that frantic to get ready this early in the morning. While a part of me, the small moral part, doesn't want to know, the sicko in me wants to know how old you are." He smirked once more and Homura could feel a flush coming on.

Homura was honestly surprised at his statement: most men she'd spent nights with didn't even bother to ask her age, assuming that since she was at the club, she was old enough to go home with them. She looked in the eye, and said "Seventeen," without missing a beat.

"Well thank god I'm not a rapist then. I'm twenty-one myself, and I'm a physics major at the University of Tokyo. And since I don't believe I've said it before, let me introduce myself: my name is Yuuta, Mochizuki Yuuta. I don't' believe I caught your name last night." He said; his cocky smile had returned once more.

"You didn't catch it," she said, slowly pulling her stockings back on, "because I didn't say it." She said no more, and he gave her a look of mock surprise.

"I introduced myself; isn't it only fair that you do the same?" he asked. She sighed and shook her head.

"Akemi Homura."

Yuuta waited for more, but the name was all he got. Finally, he spoke again. "Homura, huh? I suppose it's quite fitting: you are the flame that ignites my passion!" He proclaimed in a particularly dramatic voice, and Homura almost laughed. Almost.

"As wonderfully sentimental as that was, I really do have places to be, so I'll be going now." She was just lacing her sneakers when Yuuta jumped out of bed and pleaded with her once more.

"You really should stay. We could have fun, so much more fun! I would even be willing to just cuddle if that's what you wanted." His tone was bordering begging, and Homura heard a soft voice telling her to stay, to indulge herself once more before returning to the gritty reality that was her life. Logic emerged victorious, but part of Homura really wanted to stay and lose her mind and body in this gorgeous man as she had the previous night.

"I wish I could, but I really do need to leave." She walked out of the bedroom and heard footsteps behind her. Homura knew he was desperate, and hoped that walking away would be the trigger

"At least let me drive you home?" he asked, pleadingly, and she relented. Walking home would leave Homura alone with her memories; her memories were things she'd rather never think about again.

"I'd be okay with that," she said with a slight smile, and he smiled right back at her. "However," she said, making the smile stop, "at least put some pants on, won't you? My neighbors are all elderly, and seeing a naked man drop off their young neighbor could send off some bad impressions."

-xxx-

It took twenty-five minutes to drive from Yuuta's apartment in Bunkyo to Homura's apartment on the outer edge of Shibuya. It took thirty-five minutes for Homura to actually reach her apartment door, as eight minutes after their arrival to her apartment building were full of Yuuta's pleading for a second date, a _real _one. After six minutes Homura caved, and Yuuta cheerfully gave her his cell number before driving off. He smiled at her as he drove away, and Homura found herself surprisingly smiling back.

She watched him drive off; after his car rounded the corner and disappeared from her view, Homura swiped her apartment card and unlocked the building's main door. Homura quickly checked her mail, and, as per usual, had nothing except for some spam which she promptly discarded in the recycling bin she'd requested.

Homura stepped into the elevator at the hall, and pressed the button for the third floor as she did every day. Stepping out of the elevator, Homura felt a yawn coming on and stretched slightly as the yawn ran its course.

As she walked down the hall to her apartment, her neighbor, a kindly older woman known as Ms. Hino was leaving her apartment for her daily walk. She smiled when she Homura, and Homura smiled back. Ms. Hino was one of the few people in their complex that didn't ask questions about her family when Homura moved in alone two years ago. Instead, she invited the young woman to tea and they talked about her school and Ms. Hino's dogs.

"Ah, Homura-chan, how are you? Did you stay over at a friend's house again?" Homura winced on the inside. She trusted Ms. Hino, but she never told her about her late night rendezvous with mysterious men. She nodded and Ms. Hino smiled. Ms. Hino began walking down the hall before stopping in front of the elevator.

"I almost forgot to tell you; a girl about your age and a younger one who I assume was her sister came up to your apartment door about twenty minutes ago and was knocking quite loudly. I introduced myself as your neighbor and she called herself a friend of yours. She told me about how you two used to attend middle school together and how she wanted to catch up with you, so I showed her where the extra key was; she even showed me a picture of you two together in your younger years, so I knew she was someone you know."

Homura's face visibly paled, but Ms. Hino didn't notice. "Thank you Ms. Hino; I'll go talk to her now. Enjoy your walk." Ms. Hino smiled once more and stepped into the elevator. Homura waited until the doors shut before slowly walking towards her apartment door.

She slowly unlocked the front door, and no sound was made. She stepped inside, silently slipped off her shoes, and surveyed the area. The kitchen light was on, and that was the signal Homura needed. Only one person she knew fit the profile Ms. Hino had given her, and the fact that she was in the kitchen solidified her guess.

Homura opened the box labeled 'extra shoes' and removed her small revolver. The gun itself was a keepsake from her younger days, and it was one of the few she still kept around her home. She shut the box and walked forward, finger on the trigger.

Rounding the corner, Homura could see a figure with her back towards her and another rummaging the fridge. As quietly as she could, Homura ran forward and pressed the gun to the sitting figure's head. She heard a gasp and the figure at the fridge ceased her looking.

The figure turned and faced her, and an impish grin spread across her face, despite the fact that her friend at the table had a gun pressed to the side of her forehead.

"Damn Homura," Kyoko spoke with a smile, "it seems you still got those balls of steel you had when we were younger!"

"What are you doing in my home?" Homura asked, and Kyoko laughed, although Homura heard unease in her voice.

"Can't old friends visit each other?" Now Homura knew something was wrong. Kyoko and Homura hadn't talked since Mami died, and they'd agreed that never seeing each other again was something they could easily live with.

"What are you doing in my home?" She asked again, and Kyoko sighed.

"I'll tell you, but put the damn gun down will you? Poor Yuma's this close to peeing herself." Homura looked down, and was shocked to see tear tracks running down the girl's face. The girl, she had to say. The girl, Yuma, looked no more than ten or eleven.

"I didn't know you could even make friend anymore Kyoko, not after what happened with…" Homura drifted off after noticing the genuinely hurt expression Kyoko was wearing. She dropped her gun hand down to her side, and Yuma jumped out of the chair and ran into Kyoko's arms.

"I'm going to ignore that, because there's some serious shit going on." Kyoko stated, and Homura set the gun down on the table. She sat down in the recently vacated chair and gestured for the two of them to do the same.

"So what's so serious that you came all the way to Tokyo?" Homura asked as she shrugged off her jacket.

"Well I came because…_is that a fucking hickey?!_" Kyoko's tone went from serious to absolutely hysterical as she pointed to Homura's neck. Homura's hand instantly went to neck, where she could feel a spot that was warmer than the others.

"Yuma, I think you should go out into the living room; can she use the TV Homura?" Kyoko asked in a voice that held another message: _I want to fucking talk about this without the kid in the room_. Homura nodded and Yuma jumped up and ran into the living room. As soon as they could hear the TV going, Kyoko attacked Homura with questions.

"Are you guys serious? Or was it a one-night stand? Is he from your school? Was it your first time?" With each question, Kyoko's shit-eating grin got bigger and bigger. Homura sighed and responded to Kyoko's pestering.

"He's not from my school, it was supposed to be a one night stand but he asked me out on a real date and I accepted, and it _definitely_ wasn't my first time." If Homura enjoyed petty things, she probably would've loved the look on Kyoko's face when she said it wasn't her first time. But Homura was a serious girl, so her face stayed passive.

"Oh my fucking god; Homura, you promiscuous girl, I'm so proud of you! How long have you been doing this?" Homura sighed and decided that because it was Kyoko, she could tell her the truth.

"Since I moved here two years ago." Before Kyoko could interject, Homura opened her mouth and continued speaking. "It's a way to help me forget all the shit we've gone through, all of the shit we _still _go through."

To Homura's shock, Kyoko merely nodded and sat back. "That's pretty fucking deep, Homerun." Homura's eyebrow twitched and she could feel a grimace spread across her face.

"I thought we agreed to never calling me that again, Kyoko." Kyoko smiled and merely shook her head.

"_You _agreed; I said nothing of the sort." She smirked again and Homura was seriously considering kicking her out of her house, but remembered that Kyoko came here to discuss something considered 'serious'

"While I know my love life is so very fascinating, let's get back to the reason why you're here." Kyoko's smile disappeared and her eyes narrowed.

"I'm glad we sent Yuma out to watch TV; god knows that she doesn't need to hear this, at least not yet." Homura sent her a questioning look and Kyoko continued.

"Six months ago, one of my contacts in a smaller town that bordered Mitakihara Town stopped sending in her reports about the demon activity. After two weeks I traveled to her home, only to find her entire family murdered. But this wasn't demon work Homura, this was human work."

This information actually shocked Homura; any of magical girl, even the weakest one could easily fend off a human killer. "That's odd, I grant you that, but why tell me? It's horrible, but it just seems like a random killing."

"That's what I thought too. But only three weeks later I got this message from another girl in the town bordering that one that her partner in her city and the partner's whole family had been murdered too. I traveled there with Yuma, but we were too late. The girl I got the message from and her family were dead. Her little sister was seven months old; they killed her too. When I found the body of the magical girl, there was something written on the floor beside her, in her blood. It said _soulless things have to die._" The kitchen became completely silent after Kyoko's speech. The TV, which seemed so distant earlier, roared in Homura's ears like thunder.

Kyoko recovered from that bit of horrifying information and continued on once again. "Last month I got a call from Oriko; she used to live in Mitakihara Town, but moved away not long after you did. She said she had a vision of him…he was…well, he was coming after _you_."

Homura said nothing, and Kyoko kept silent. Once again, the TV was the only noise. Finally, Homura looked up and met Kyoko's eyes. "…this is serious."

Uncharacteristically, Kyoko said nothing; she merely nodded. Homura sighed and leaned back into her chair. _'Are you watching me, Madoka?' _Homura thought sadly, _'is this the better future you hoped for?'_

Homura noticed Kyoko watching her questioningly, and so she spoke once more. "It seems that we have a serial killer that's targeting magical girls on our hands, and it seems that he's coming for me next."

Kyoko nodded and dropped her head into her hands, and she shell began to crack. "What are we going to do, Homura? I can't let that freak get to Yuma, she's already been in so much deep shit in her life; she doesn't need to be constantly afraid that some evil freak is out to get her because of what she is."

"…You really care about this kid, don't you," Homura asked softly, and Kyoko looked at her with a sad smile that Homura had never seen on her before.

"She reminds me a lot of myself, you know? Her parents were terrible people, fucking abusers, and were killed in an attack; she had no one left, so I took care of her. I got in a pretty bad situation, cornered by those fuckers on all sides, and I thought I was done for. But Yuma made a fucking contract to save my ass, and pulled me out of the fire. She was eight, and she sacrificed her future to help a girl she'd known for two weeks. I couldn't just leave her alone after that, could I?"

Homura said nothing, and allowed Kyoko to calm herself enough to speak again. "I came here because I knew a phone call wasn't enough. We've been through enough shit together that I needed to come and explain it to you, face-to-face. I couldn't leave Yuma alone, so I brought her along."

Kyoko sighed and slumped further into her chair. "I guess we just can't catch a break, can we?" She asked bitterly, and Homura merely nodded. "I however," she said with a spark that wasn't in her voice before, "am not content to just wait for the fucker to come to me; I think we should bring the fight to him and finish him before he can finish us."

Homura had been expecting this from the moment Kyoko mentioned the killer's new target, but the statement itself still shocked her. She'd never killed anyone before, and Kyoko had only killed one person, albeit in self-defense.

"I suppose you're right; if we can find him and get the jump on him, we can prevent the deaths of any other magical girls."

Kyoko smiled, and called for Yuma to come back into the kitchen. The TV was shut off and Yuma came back in with a smile on her face, obviously much happier after watching TV. "Kyoko, what are we doing?" she asked, and Kyoko's trademark smirk was back on her face.

"Well little Yuma, come over and listen close. You, me, and Aunty Homura," Homura raised an eyebrow at being called Aunty, but Kyoko ignored her and continued, "The three of us are going to catch a killer."

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Aaaand the first chapter in my madoka magica darkfic is complete! Mind you that there is slight (only slight, if I tried to write a lemon I think I would laugh too hard and suffocate myself by accident) sexual content. The real reason this is rated M is because of the dark themes surrounding the killer and the girl's attempts to stop him. And no, before anyone asks, Yuuta is not the killer. He's Homura's fling and (maybe?) eventual semi-quasi love interest, if I feel it's good with the plot. But the main focus is their hunt for the magical girl serial killer. I really hope you guys enjoyed this fic, and as always, please R it rocks my world when I see a review.

-Serenity


	2. First Contact

Aaaand I'm back! After a month-ish, I've returned with an all-new chapter. As some of you might have noticed, I changed the rating from M to T on the advice of a reviewer, as the violence isn't that violent, and there isn't going to be smut, because I would die of laughter trying to write smut. So it's a T story, but the themes will still be staying dark. Also, in this chapter, the final important characters will be introduced, and we get our first glimpse at the mysterious magical girl killer!

Disclaimer: I don't own Madoka Magica, nor am I making money off of it. If I DID own it, Homura would conquer the world and would have a pretty boy harem, because I think after all she's been through, she deserves one.

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Chapter Two: First Contact

Homura, as she always did, woke well before dawn breathing heavily and quickly. As it had been for nearly every night of the past three years, Homura awoke from a nightmare. Some were of her fights against Walpurgis, and some were of all the deaths she'd seen of her old friends. Glancing sleepily to the clock on her bedside table, she found it to be 1:45 in the morning. She yawned and stretched her limbs lazily before slowly rising from her bed.

She could hear slow breathing from the living room; Kyoko and Yuma decided that to keep Homura safe, they'd have to camp out in Homura's apartment, and were now using the living room couch as a makeshift bed. Homura listened for a few moments more, and, after deciding that they were still asleep, dressed as quickly and quietly as she possibly could in her warmest clothes. It was already mid-May, but the temperature was always low when the sun was out, even in the summer. She tiptoed into the living room and scribbled a quick note, which she place on the coffee table in front of Yuma's face.

With one last look to her sleeping guests, Homura slipped on her favorite boots, grabbed one of her favorite items from the extra shoe box and walked out the door. The window at the end of the hall gave her a breathtaking view of the still waxing moon, and Homura took a moment to admire it. Remembering her purpose for leaving so early in the morning, Homura briskly walked down the hallway and called for the elevator. Thankfully, her building's elevator light merely blinked instead of chirping in an annoying tone, which could potentially wake up her fellow apartment owners.

She entered the elevator and pressed the L Button, and was left to her thoughts once more. She replayed her thrown together plan once more in her head, making sure there were no blatant holes or possible places for mistakes. The elevator reached the lobby and she stepped out. The lobby and its overwhelming silence greeted her like an old friend: it certainly wasn't the first time she left her apartment in the early hours of the morning.

She opened the door and felt a breeze ripple through her hair. Closing it as gently as she could behind her, Homura sighed and began to casually walk down the deserted street. Homura could feel the chill of the cool spring night seeping through her clothes, and she gripped her arms across her chest in attempt to keep warm.

As she rounded the corner of the block her apartment was located on, she found her target: the twenty-four hour 7-Eleven, situated only two blocks away. She entered the shop and was greeted cheerfully by the night shift worker; Hama, that was her name. Homura had visited the 7-Eleven several times before in the early morning, and Hama was nice enough not to ask questions.

She lazily browsed the aisles before grabbing a Morning Rescue from the chilled drinks section. Homura began to walk back to the checkout counter when the door chime dinged and two men who looked to be in their mid-twenties walked in. They greeted Hama with a smile and walked towards the instant coffee station, passing Homura in the process. "Evening," one of them said politely to Homura, and she smiled politely in return. Hama noticed the Morning Rescue in her hand and rang it up before Homura set in on the counter, quietly asking for 250 yen. Homura handed over a 500 coin and received her change.

The men who had come in walked up behind her as she dropped her change in the tip jar, as she always did. Hama was nice; she deserved tips for working the grave-yard shift. Homura smiled at Hama once more and turned to walk towards the door. She stopped when the voice that addressed her earlier rang out again.

"It's awful late for you to be wandering about by yourself miss; you have someone waiting for you?" Homura could sense that the man was honestly just concerned about her safety, so she smiled softly at him.

"I only live a couple blocks away from here, so I think I'll be okay. Thanks for the concern." He looked as though he was going to speak again, but merely sighed and turned back to the counter.

Homura opened the door and the cool breeze greeted her once more, sending a chill down her spine. The door closed quickly behind her, and she made a point to look slightly frightened at the noise. She checked both ways up and down the street, and, although she couldn't see anyone, Homura could sense that something was off.

She made a show of grabbing her arms, as though chilly from the nighttime cold. Homura slowly began to walk down the street, passing the nicely-lit crosswalk that would be the most direct route to her home in favor of an alleyway that was dark and unfriendly.

Putting on her best 'I'm an idiotic teenaged girl that doesn't realize how stupid she's being' look, Homura walked down the alley with fake security. As soon as she took her first step into the dark area, she began to count down from ten. By the time she reached four, footsteps could be heard coming up behind her. "Young things like you really shouldn't be walking around alone this late at night."

Homura sighed in a fake exasperated tone and turned to face the person who followed her. "I told you sir, I…you're not the man who was in the 7-eleven…" she trailed off, and the mystery man smiled. In the silence, Homura quickly took the time to get a brief picture of the man's physique, keeping her eyes wide in 'fear'.

The man's upper face was covered by a long black hood from his overcoat, but Homura could pick out a few general details. He was around 6'3, thin, with no evident muscles. He stood with pride, as though confident that he would be able to complete his task. His jaw was thin and clean-shaven, and was stretched in a near-maniacal smile.

Homura, playing the part of frightened teen, backed up farther into the alley, which was what the man expected. He stalked toward her like a lion towards a zebra, and she let out a high pitched scream. It didn't come out like she'd hoped, as it sounded more like a dying cat than a cry for help, but it hopefully caught someone's attention.

The man's smiled was instantly wiped from his face and he rushed forward, clamping on of his gloved hands over her mouth, another wrapping around her torso to keep her from running. "Stupid bitch," he muttered, and Homura internally smirked. Was that the best he could come up with? Even Kyoko's comebacks were better than that, and more often than not they involved food.

On the outside, Homura played the part of scared helpless girl perfectly. She sniffled and bowed her head, trying to give off the appearance that she was crying. She could hear him chuckle softly under his breath, and felt his grip on her waist loosen. This was her chance. She could feel the weight of her small blade she'd taken from the shoe box pressing against her from the inside pocket of her coat, and slowly reached for in with her left arm, which had been previously dangling from the attacker's grip.

Homura grabbed the knife and, as quickly as she could, brought it against the attacker's face. He screamed and threw her to the side. She gasped as the air left her body; even in pain, the man who attacked her (and she was definitely sure it was a man at this point: the hard thing she felt against her leg was _not _a gun) was much stronger than she'd anticipated. Her knife clattered to the ground out of reach.

He turned to her, and for a moment she saw his eyes: wild and crazed. For the first time in a long time, Homura could feel the ice-cold grip of terror, a feeling that she hadn't experienced in several years. The attacker loomed over her, and the blood from the cut she'd inflicted dripped onto her face. She rolled to the side as he lunged towards her, and she heard the satisfying crash as he rammed into the wall.

Homura jumped up and began to run for the entrance to the alleyway, screaming all the while. She could see the streetlights again when a searing pain came from the back of her right thigh. This time the scream was real; she dropped to the ground and looked down at her leg. A black knife was now nearly hilt deep into her right leg. Homura began slowly crawling to the entrance to the alley: trying to pull out the knife would result in too much blood loss, and Homura didn't feel like dying from something like that.

The man was openly laughing now as he watched Homura weakly crawling away from him. In five strides he'd made it to her bleeding body, and roughly grabbed her hair and dragged her back from the light. "The rumors were true: you are a strong one. Too bad for you, but I know how to handle the strong ones."

Homura couldn't see his face from the angle that she was being dragged from, but she could hear the smirk in his voice. His other hand came flying into view as he slapped her roughly in the face. "That was for that little knife bit, you stupid bitch; I'll make sure I kill you extra slow for that one."

At this point, Homura was starting to lose hope; no one had heard her screams, and she was being taken into a dark alleyway by a man who knew how to kill her, and how to make it hurt. He _wanted_ to hurt her, and she knew he would enjoy every second he had.

Homura knew that the only way to escape was to transform into her magical girl state, but that would show her attacker that she couldn't handle him in civilian form, which was the exact reason that Homura came out alone in the first place. This first contact meant everything, and she played all her cards now, she wouldn't stand a chance in the next confrontation that she was sure they would have. However, her number of options began to decrease at a faster rate, and Homura knew it was only a matter of time till she had to resort to using her powers to get away.

As she was about to transform and try to get away, a voice rang out from the entrance to the alley. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, you asshole?" Homura actually wanted to cry in relief. Before her stood the two men from the 7-Eleven, both brandishing guns. One of them, the younger looking one, made eye contact with her and smiled slightly, as though to convey '_we'll get you outta here, so don't be afraid.'_

She smiled back and the two began to advance. Her attacker grunted and, weighing his options, decided to run. He shoved her forward roughly, into the open arms of one of her saviors. This action took all three of them by surprise, and by the time the two men looked up, the attacker was gone. The alley was silent, save for the rapid breaths from the three that remained.

"Holy shit, that guy was fucking crazy!" The younger one exclaimed with a tone that edged on slightly hysterical, and the older man gave him an annoyed look. He looked down at Homura, who was currently shivering in his arms. He sighed heavily and addressed his younger friend.

"Watch your language around young girls; they like men who use real words, not slang." Homura laughed weakly at that, but cringed again as another wave of pain washed through her leg.

He looked down at her leg and muttered something under his breath. "We need to get you to the hospital, and we need to do it fast. You got a cellphone?" Homura shook her head; playing the role of frightened, injured teenager was her only option at this point, and the intense pain that coursed through her made it an easy role to fill. She really just wanted to go home and use her grief seeds so that she could heal, but if going to the hospital was the price for being saved, she'd pay it in a heartbeat.

"Saito, you got your cellphone?" The man asked his friend, whose name was revealed as Saito, and Saito nodded. "Well then call the emergency hotline, you idiot!" Saito grumbled at being called an idiot but pulled out his cellphone and began dialing.

The man who held her sighed and looked down at her again. "I'm glad we got here in time little miss. Otherwise…" he trailed off, trying to spare the 'innocent' young girl before him the truth that she could've faced if they hadn't been there. However, Homura wanted to meet her attacker head on, and although it would've meant forcing her hand, she would've been to get away.

"I'm Nishida, and that's Saito. What's your name, little miss?" He was trying to lighten the mood, trying to distract her from the perceived trauma she'd just survived. Homura could tell these two were good, average men, and felt no need to lie about her identity. Besides, lying to hospital staff was not something she wanted to repeat. Last time that happened, she had to escape from her room's window before the figured out she wasn't who she said she was.

"Homura; Akemi Homura is my name. Thank you very much for saving me." Homura spoke quietly and slowly, to give off an air of still-there terror, and one of exhaustion. The exhaustion wasn't feigned; Homura could feel the pull of the exhaustion dragging her towards unconsciousness, so she knew she had to speak quickly.

"L-listen," she said, and was slightly horrified when she stuttered; she hadn't stuttered in _years. _She ignored her horror at the mispronunciation and continued on, determined to get her message out before she fainted. "My friends are staying at my place, so I'll give you the number and I'd really appreciate if you'd call them to tell them where we're going."

He nodded and she quickly relayed her land-line number to him. Homura sighed and weakly tried to keep her eyes open, but at this point her eyelids felt like they'd been remade with lead, and Homura couldn't fight the exhaustion.

She closed her eyes as the intense pain in her leg became duller and duller. The last thing she recognized was a soft voice calling out her name, and she smiled. _'Here to watch me fail again, Madoka?' _ She thought bitterly, and lost consciousness.

* * *

When Homura began regain consciousness, she could only make out garbled voices that were saying things she couldn't understand. Although it had lessened considerably, the pain in her leg was still very intense, and Homura was seriously considering going back into her unconscious state. She was really trying again when a loud and all-too-familiar voice rang out loud and clear.

"What the _fuck _Homura! You're so fucking stupid!" Ah, Kyoko had arrived. Homura cracked an eye open to see fiery red hair and flailing limbs. As always, Kyoko was so overly dramatic over little things. Homura looked to her left, noticing the bedside table with the holo-clock. The time on the clock read 7:34, which meant that Homura had been out for about five hours.

"It seems I bit off more than I could chew, Kyoko. So I won't fight your claim that I'm 'so fucking stupid' because in all honesty I kind of deserved it." At this comment, Kyoko was taken back; Homura always had a comeback, no matter how calm of a comeback it may've been.

"…Are you dying?" Kyoko asked, and Homura actually laughed. Kyoko looked at her with an annoyed look and spoke again. "For serious man, you scared the shit outta me and Yuma. We woke up to the phone ringing at _2:30 in the fucking morning _because some guys found you being dragged down an alleyway by some freak. How the hell did that happen anyways?"

"It was _him_, Kyoko; the one who's been hunting the others. I wanted to make first contact to try and gauge his strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, I should've planned it out more, but what's done is done, and now we have some information about him."

Kyoko rubbed her temples and sat down in the chair beside Homura's bed, only to immediately jump up again when a cry of pain came from beneath her. "Oh, sorry Yuma, I forgot you were sleeping there."

Yuma huffed and fake-glared at Kyoko, but Homura knew Yuma didn't care; Yuma was _devoted _to Kyoko. Even after only a few hours with the two of them, it was clear that Yuma had placed Kyoko in the role that her mother should've fit, but since Kyoko had told her that her parents were abusive, Kyoko was apparently the next best thing.

Homura began lifting her legs from the bed, but hissed in pain and dropped them again quickly. Her thigh was feeling wave after wave of pain, and Homura collapsed back down onto her pillow. Kyoko sighed and sat on the bed beside Homura's torso. "That's the other thing I was going to mention, but you started talking about the attacker and I forgot. After those guys brought you here and called me, I shooed them out of the room and tried to heal you."

"Try?" Homura asked dryly. "Have your skills dulled that much?"

Kyoko grimaced, but ignored the jest, which Homura thought was strange. "Yes, _tried_. Your wound wouldn't heal. I used five fucking demon cubes on your soul gem, which is perfectly cleansed now by the way, but the wound stayed…wound-y."

Homura thought quickly about this newfound information. If her wounds weren't healing, that meant the knife wasn't normal. Vaguely, she remembered how even at night, the knife had looked distinctly darker than most blades would be. "Kyoko, did they save the knife after they pulled it out?"

"Yeah, but the doc took it away a couple hours ago; why?"

"Kyoko," Homura said quietly, "I think it's time for your…old skills to be put to use. Do you think you can get that knife back for me?" She looked over to see Kyoko grinning like a maniac.

"Are you kidding? I'm an expert thief, Homerun. Give me ten minutes."

* * *

It ended up taking twelve minutes, but Homura didn't voice that particular fact. She was much more focused on the knife that was now sitting before her. Kyoko had drawn the interior window's curtains, saying that she was going to help Homura change. Kyoko _did _help her change, but the study of the knife was not for other eyes to see.

Homura's recollection proved to be correct: the blade itself was a very dark grey, while the hilt was completely black. '_Easy to hide in the dark_,' Homura thought, but dismissed the notion; she had other work to do. She examined it closer and saw little markings all along the blade. She cursed under her breath.

"What's up with the blade?" Kyoko asked, and Homura looked at her gravely. She motioned for Kyoko to move closer, and began pointing out the little markings that covered the knife.

"You see these? The markings on this blade are anti-magic inscriptions; the reason I'm not healing at the normal accelerated rate is because the wound inflicted was also against my magic." She set the knife down on the bedside table, and Yuma quickly picked it up and placed it in her small bag. "Good idea Yuma, we need to keep that on us; it'll help us catch this guy faster."

Yuma beamed from the praise, and Homura could see the appeal of having her around. A small girl who smiled at any sort of praise, not to mention her extreme loyalty to people she believed to be her 'saviors'.

"This is how the killer was able to kill the others before they healed; by using this knife, the other magical girls were essentially regular humans in terms of healing and the injuries would slow them down considerably. This guy knows way too much about us; he's more dangerous than I could have possibly imagined. Not to mention that he's smart: he probably has several more blades just like this one."

"Shit; what the hell are we supposed to do about it?" Kyoko sighed and let her head fall forward until her head was at her knees. "How are we going to face this asshole Homura?"

Homura stayed silent for a while, and then spoke very calmly. "It's simple, Kyoko: we lay a trap, catch him, and then we kill him."


End file.
